SpaceX Targeting Aug. 13 For Resupply Launch To Space Station

(Clickorlando) CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The next delivery of science and supplies to the International Space Station could launch as soon as Aug. 13, NASA officials said this week.Commercial space company SpaceX is targeting a Sunday afternoon launch window for its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule from Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39A.The tentative launch window will open at 12:26 p.m.

It will mark the 12th resupply mission, known as CRS 12, launched by SpaceX for the space station. The Dragon spacecraft will be filled with almost 6,000 pounds of supplies including more than 250 science experiments and supplies for the six crew members.

U.S. students about to start their junior year of high school have never lived a day without astronauts on the space station above Earth. Currently, the international residents on the orbiting laboratory are astronauts from Russia, Europe and the U.S.

The Falcon 9 launch will kick off a busy month at the Cape.One week later, United Launch Alliance is aiming to launch an Atlas V rocket Aug. 20 with a NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite, dubbed TDRS-M.

The mission, originally set for Thursday, was delayed after the Boeing-built satellite was damaged in July at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville. NASA officials said a damaged antennae would need to be replaced before the mission could launch.ULA’s launch window opens at 7:56 a.m.

In the same week as the Atlas V launch, researchers from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center and Langley Research Center will conduct a series of tests as part of the Sonic Booms in Atmospheric Turbulence flights, or SonicBAT, at Kennedy Space Center. The two-week investigation beginning Aug. 21 could mean Space Coast residents will experience more than 30 sonic booms.

The final launch of the month, on Aug. 25, will be a rocket that has never blasted off from the Space Coast before. Orbital ATK’s Minotaur IV rocket is set to liftoff with an Air Force satellite. The four-hour window opens at 11:15 p.m.